Abu-Dis, Wadi Naar, Tuesday 18.04.06 p.m. Observers; Julia W., Rina H., Rahel W. (reporting) We went first to the old Cliff Hotel to see what was going on there. There were about 6 borderpolice there and two jeeps. When we started to walk down the road, we were told that it was a closed area and we were not allowed to go there. We said that we had been coming for 4 years and this was the first time anyone told us it was forbidden. They were quite pleasant but insisted it was for our own protection — someone might throw a rock. We assured them that in the 200 previous times that we came no one ever threw a rock, but they were insistent. We felt it was not worth the effort to make a big deal over it and went back to the pishpash. There were two border police there but there seemed to be pretty free passage to everyone who came — in both directions. Other b.p.’s were in the monastery grounds, but with the opening in the pishpash, it makes no sense to go that way.When we arrived at Wadi Naar, there was a huge back up of vehicles heading toward Bethlehem and not a car coming toward Jerusalem. Then we noticed that the winding road from the village of El Amadiyya — the village that one sees on the horizon from the Container — was blocked in both directions. One of the border police volunteered the information that the PA had set up a road block and that was the cause of the halt of traffic. Within a few minutes, vehicles started coming and going — with scarcely a check– and the bottleneck ended.An ambulance with blinking lights came through from the Bethlehem side and continued down the gated road alongside the kiosk.On our way back, our driver told us that it was impossible that the PA set up roadblocks in that area because they are not even allowed on the winding road up to El Amadiyyah. (He might have something there because in the past, we did see border police checkpoints in that particular area). He also related a story to us saying that his friend told him that there was a flying checkpoint within Sawahre and a borderpoliceman started cursing at the occupants of a car. When the man cursed back, he was pulled out of the car and the b.p. hit him over the head with his rifle, cracking open his skull. When we asked what the name of the victim was, we were told that he was from Bethlehem and no one knew him. There is no way of knowing how accurate this third hand info is.As we left the pishpash, we were also told a story of b.p. beating up a young man. In this case, the contention was that the man, here illegally, was told to say that he was in a vehicle with Israeli plates carrying Israeli. The driver denied this as did the young man and he was being browbeaten to change his story. Again, we have no way of verifying any of this.